HAWKES, Jacquetta

(1910-)

   UK archaeologist and writer, known mainly for such works outside the sf field as The Land (1951). She was married to J.B. PRIESTLEY. Fables (coll 1953; vt A Woman as Great as the World and Other Fables 1953 US)includes "The Unites", a long exemplary tale which combines fantasy and DYSTOPIAN sf: God sends down an investigative angel to find out why humanshave grown silent. The angel reports that, although Homo sapiens has degenerated into a breed of hive-dwelling automata through too sedulous a striving after equality, dissidents have begun to recreate human conflict and difference. God seems pleased. Providence Island: An Archaeological Tale (1959) is a fairly late example of anthropological sf (ANTHROPOLOGY), in which an expedition comes across survivors from the Magdalenian culture of the late Paleolithic living within an extinct volcano on a Pacific ISLAND. They have highly developed empathic and PSI POWERS, developed as a kind of cultural alternative to technologicalprowess; they use these powers to fend off US nuclear tests. A Quest for Love (1980) is a REINCARNATION fantasy.

   JC

   See also: LOST WORLDS.